Exercise 2.1 Steven Holzer Writing the Essay Section 037

In Walker Percy’s “The Loss of the Creature,” he uses the term “recovery” in an interesting fashion. It is all in relation to regaining the same feeling that Garcia Lopez de Cardenas felt upon being the first person in recorded history to come across the Grand Canyon. In technicality, a recovery is:

1. a return to a normal state of health, mind, or strength

2. the action or process of regaining possession or control of something stolen or lost

Is Percy then saying that Lopez de Cardenas actually possessed the Grand Canyon, or that the Grand Canyon actually caused a change in the mental state of Lopez de Cardenas? Perhaps it means that “recovering” the Grand Canyon, as a sightseer, is to possess the memory and the whole of the Canyon as a living body. In experiencing the Canyon, truly, someone can re-discover it, which is probably part of the etymology of the word recover. Percy uses it as a reoccurring motif, like a melody in a song, to tie together the various points he makes. In any walk of life, this idea of recovery can be applied, and “reckoning” is brought about by recovery. Discover is made new again, by bringing the subject to the surface of the sea, as it is with sea-floor ship-wrecks.